Emergency Communication in a Public School District
Gaps in clarity, timing, and consistency across a fragmented communication system
Conceptual alert structure exploring clarity, status, and consistency.
Summary
This project began as exploratory research into the Austin Independent School District (AISD) website, with an initial focus on navigation, information clarity, and how people connected to AISD schools locate district resources online.
Early exploration revealed a more urgent communication problem during school emergencies. I narrowed the research focus from website usability to how official emergency information was received, interpreted, and verified across channels during high-stress situations.
Role
UX Researcher
UX Writer
Industry
Public Education
Duration
Fall 2024 (5 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Miro
Google Forms
Context and Stakes
Austin Independent School District (AISD) serves nearly 73,000 students across 116 schools and supports families in more than 100 languages. In a district this large, emergency communication has to work across many audiences, languages, campuses, and channels.
During urgent situations, parents, staff, and nearby community members depend on official updates to understand what is happening, whether students are safe, and what to do next.
Research Approach
I began by reviewing AISD’s public-facing website and communication materials to understand how families were expected to find emergency information.
After narrowing the project scope toward emergency communication, I conducted five semi-structured interviews with AISD parents, staff, and a nearby community member connected to district schools, along with a short survey used to identify recurring patterns across experiences.
The interviews focused on how people received emergency updates, which communication channels they trusted, where confusion occurred, and how they verified information during active situations.
Because I did not have access to district accounts, parent portals, or internal communication systems, the research focused on participant experiences, public-facing materials, and examples of official messaging shared during interviews.
Research Synthesis
After each interview, I transcribed responses and coded recurring themes related to timing, clarity, trust, and how people verified information. I then used affinity mapping to group similar patterns across interviews and survey responses.
Across interviews and survey responses, recurring patterns emerged around timing, trust, status clarity, and how participants verified information during active situations.
That synthesis shifted the research from asking, “Where should emergency information live?” to “How can official communication make changing situations easier to understand?”
Affinity mapping was used to group recurring themes around trust, timing, status clarity, and communication behavior during emergencies.
What People Said
“About a week ago there was a bomb threat at my child’s school ... I found out about it on Facebook.”
— Mother of high school student
“I really couldn’t pinpoint if it had just happened or...was still happening."
— Special education teacher
Findings
Three patterns shaped how participants experienced emergency communication during active situations.
Delayed and Incomplete Updates
Emergency notifications often arrived after incidents had already ended or after information had circulated through other channels. Many people relied on faster sources such as social media, group chats, or direct messages to understand what was happening.
Fragmented Information Systems
Participants pieced together updates across text alerts, robocalls, parent and student portals, the AISD website, social media, and word of mouth. No single source consistently reflected the current status of an incident.
District guidance directs families to check the website during emergencies, yet no real-time updates appeared there during the research period. This reinforced the perception that official channels were difficult to rely on when people needed timely information most.
Unclear Status and Resolution
Many people struggled to tell whether a situation was ongoing, escalating, or resolved. Messages often communicated that something had happened, but did not clearly indicate the current status.
Without clear follow-up updates, families and staff were left waiting, checking other sources, or assuming the situation was over.
Insight
The issue was not simply whether emergency communication existed, but whether official updates could function as a clear and trusted source during rapidly changing situations.
As uncertainty increased, participants had to cross-check information across multiple systems, social networks, and personal contacts to understand what was happening in real time.
This made emergency communication feel less like a coordinated system and more like something users had to actively reconstruct for themselves.
Emergency Alert Structure
Current System
Status is embedded within paragraphs
Updates require reading previous messages
Next steps are inconsistent or unclear
Revised Structure
Current status is visible at a glance
Messages can be understood independently
Updates and next steps are easier to scan
Recommendations and Opportunities
These recommendations focus on making official emergency communication easier to interpret consistently across systems during active incidents.
Surface Emergency Updates on the Homepage
AISD guidance directs families to check the district website during emergencies. A prominent homepage alert banner or status box could make current updates visible without requiring users to search through emergency-management pages.
Make Emergency Terms Understandable in Context
Terms such as “secure” and “hold” are defined in district materials, but they are not easy to interpret during an incident. Alerts should pair the term with a short plain-language explanation.
Clarify Status Across Updates
Emergency messages should make it clear whether a situation is active, changing, or resolved. Follow-up and resolution messages should use consistent language across text alerts, robocalls, the website, and social media.
To explore the recommendation around message clarity more concretely, I developed a conceptual restructuring of an SMS alert.
What This Research Revealed
This project began as a broad exploration of information clarity within a public school district, but the research revealed a more specific systems problem: during emergencies, people were often left interpreting fragmented and evolving information under pressure.
The conversation revealed that the broader issue was not just finding information, but understanding which information was current and trustworthy during emergencies.
The issue was not simply whether communication existed, but whether official updates could function as a trusted source during rapidly changing situations.
Emergency Communication in a Public School District
Gaps in clarity, timing, and consistency across a fragmented communication system
Conceptual alert structure exploring clarity, status, and consistency.
Summary
This project began as exploratory research into the Austin Independent School District (AISD) website, with an initial focus on navigation, information clarity, and how people connected to AISD schools locate district resources online.
Early exploration revealed a more urgent communication problem during school emergencies. I narrowed the research focus from website usability to how official emergency information was received, interpreted, and verified across channels during high-stress situations.
Role
UX Researcher
UX Writer
Industry
Public Education
Duration
Fall 2024 (5 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Miro
Google Forms
Context and Stakes
Austin Independent School District (AISD) serves nearly 73,000 students across 116 schools and supports families in more than 100 languages. In a district this large, emergency communication has to work across many audiences, languages, campuses, and channels.
During urgent situations, parents, staff, and nearby community members depend on official updates to understand what is happening, whether students are safe, and what to do next.
Research Approach
I began by reviewing AISD’s public-facing website and communication materials to understand how families were expected to find emergency information.
After narrowing the project scope toward emergency communication, I conducted five semi-structured interviews with AISD parents, staff, and a nearby community member connected to district schools, along with a short survey used to identify recurring patterns across experiences.
The interviews focused on how people received emergency updates, which communication channels they trusted, where confusion occurred, and how they verified information during active situations.
Because I did not have access to district accounts, parent portals, or internal communication systems, the research focused on participant experiences, public-facing materials, and examples of official messaging shared during interviews.
Research Synthesis
After each interview, I transcribed responses and coded recurring themes related to timing, clarity, trust, and how people verified information. I then used affinity mapping to group similar patterns across interviews and survey responses.
Across interviews and survey responses, recurring patterns emerged around timing, trust, status clarity, and how participants verified information during active situations.
That synthesis shifted the research from asking, “Where should emergency information live?” to “How can official communication make changing situations easier to understand?”
Affinity mapping was used to group recurring themes around trust, timing, status clarity, and communication behavior during emergencies.
What People Said
“About a week ago there was a bomb threat at my child’s school ... I found out about it on Facebook.”
— Mother of high school student
“I really couldn’t pinpoint if it had just happened or...was still happening."
— Special education teacher
Findings
Three patterns shaped how participants experienced emergency communication during active situations.
Delayed and Incomplete Updates
Emergency notifications often arrived after incidents had already ended or after information had circulated through other channels. Many people relied on faster sources such as social media, group chats, or direct messages to understand what was happening.
Fragmented Information Systems
Participants pieced together updates across text alerts, robocalls, parent and student portals, the AISD website, social media, and word of mouth. No single source consistently reflected the current status of an incident.
District guidance directs families to check the website during emergencies, yet no real-time updates appeared there during the research period. This reinforced the perception that official channels were difficult to rely on when people needed timely information most.
Unclear Status and Resolution
Many people struggled to tell whether a situation was ongoing, escalating, or resolved. Messages often communicated that something had happened, but did not clearly indicate the current status.
Without clear follow-up updates, families and staff were left waiting, checking other sources, or assuming the situation was over.
Emergency Alert Structure
Current System
Status is embedded within paragraphs
Updates require reading previous messages
Next steps are inconsistent or unclear
Revised Structure
Current status is visible at a glance
Messages can be understood independently
Updates and next steps are easier to scan
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Recommendations and Opportunities
These recommendations focus on making official emergency communication easier to interpret consistently across systems during active incidents.
Surface Emergency Updates on the Homepage
AISD guidance directs families to check the district website during emergencies. A prominent homepage alert banner or status box could make current updates visible without requiring users to search through emergency-management pages.
Make Emergency Terms Understandable in Context
Terms such as “secure” and “hold” are defined in district materials, but they are not easy to interpret during an incident. Alerts should pair the term with a short plain-language explanation.
Clarify Status Across Updates
Emergency messages should make it clear whether a situation is active, changing, or resolved. Follow-up and resolution messages should use consistent language across text alerts, robocalls, the website, and social media.
To explore the recommendation around message clarity more concretely, I developed a conceptual restructuring of an SMS alert.
What This Research Revealed
This project began as a broad exploration of information clarity within a public school district, but the research revealed a more specific systems problem: during emergencies, people were often left interpreting fragmented and evolving information under pressure.
The conversation revealed that the broader issue was not just finding information, but understanding which information was current and trustworthy during emergencies.
The issue was not simply whether communication existed, but whether official updates could function as a trusted source during rapidly changing situations.
Emergency Communication in a Public School District
Gaps in clarity, timing, and consistency across a fragmented communication system
Summary
This project began as exploratory research into the Austin Independent School District (AISD) website, with an initial focus on navigation, information clarity, and how people connected to AISD schools locate district resources online.
Early exploration revealed a more urgent communication problem during school emergencies. I narrowed the research focus from website usability to how official emergency information was received, interpreted, and verified across channels during high-stress situations.
Role
UX Researcher
Industry
Public Education
Duration
Fall 2024 (5 weeks)
Tools
Figma
Miro
Google Forms
Context and Stakes
Austin Independent School District (AISD) serves nearly 73,000 students across 116 schools and supports families in more than 100 languages. In a district this large, emergency communication has to work across many audiences, languages, campuses, and channels.
During urgent situations, parents, staff, and nearby community members depend on official updates to understand what is happening, whether students are safe, and what to do next.
Research Approach
I began by reviewing AISD’s public-facing website and communication materials to understand how families were expected to find emergency information.
After narrowing the project scope toward emergency communication, I conducted five semi-structured interviews with AISD parents, staff, and a nearby community member connected to district schools, along with a short survey used to identify recurring patterns across experiences.
The interviews focused on how people received emergency updates, which communication channels they trusted, where confusion occurred, and how they verified information during active situations.
Because I did not have access to district accounts, parent portals, or internal communication systems, the research focused on participant experiences, public-facing materials, and examples of official messaging shared during interviews.
Research Synthesis
After each interview, I transcribed responses and coded recurring themes related to timing, clarity, trust, and how people verified information. I then used affinity mapping to group similar patterns across interviews and survey responses.
Across interviews and survey responses, recurring patterns emerged around timing, trust, status clarity, and how participants verified information during active situations.
That synthesis shifted the research from asking, “Where should emergency information live?” to “How can official communication make changing situations easier to understand?”
Affinity mapping was used to group recurring themes around trust, timing, status clarity, and communication behavior during emergencies.
What People Said
“About a week ago there was a bomb threat at my child’s school ... I found out about it on Facebook.”
— Mother of high school student
“I really couldn’t pinpoint if it had just happened or...was still happening."
— Special education teacher
Findings
Three patterns shaped how participants experienced emergency communication during active situations.
Delayed and Incomplete Updates
Emergency notifications often arrived after incidents had already ended or after information had circulated through other channels. Many people relied on faster sources such as social media, group chats, or direct messages to understand what was happening.
Fragmented Information Systems
Participants pieced together updates across text alerts, robocalls, parent and student portals, the AISD website, social media, and word of mouth. No single source consistently reflected the current status of an incident.
District guidance directs families to check the website during emergencies, yet no real-time updates appeared there during the research period. This reinforced the perception that official channels were difficult to rely on when people needed timely information most.
Unclear Status and Resolution
Many people struggled to tell whether a situation was ongoing, escalating, or resolved. Messages often communicated that something had happened, but did not clearly indicate the current status.
Without clear follow-up updates, families and staff were left waiting, checking other sources, or assuming the situation was over.
Insight
The issue was not simply whether emergency communication existed, but whether official updates could function as a clear and trusted source during rapidly changing situations.
As uncertainty increased, participants had to cross-check information across multiple systems, social networks, and personal contacts to understand what was happening in real time.
This made emergency communication feel less like a coordinated system and more like something users had to actively reconstruct for themselves.
Emergency Alert Structure
Current System
Status is embedded within paragraphs
Updates require reading previous messages
Next steps are inconsistent or unclear
Revised Structure
Current status is visible at a glance
Messages can be understood independently
Updates and next steps are easier to scan
Recommendations and Opportunities
These recommendations focus on making official emergency communication easier to interpret consistently across systems during active incidents.
Surface Emergency Updates on the Homepage
AISD guidance directs families to check the district website during emergencies. A prominent homepage alert banner or status box could make current updates visible without requiring users to search through emergency-management pages.
Make Emergency Terms Understandable in Context
Terms such as “secure” and “hold” are defined in district materials, but they are not easy to interpret during an incident. Alerts should pair the term with a short plain-language explanation.
Clarify Status Across Updates
Emergency messages should make it clear whether a situation is active, changing, or resolved. Follow-up and resolution messages should use consistent language across text alerts, robocalls, the website, and social media.
To explore the recommendation around message clarity more concretely, I developed a conceptual restructuring of an SMS alert.
What This Research Revealed
This project began as a broad exploration of information clarity within a public school district, but the research revealed a more specific systems problem: during emergencies, people were often left interpreting fragmented and evolving information under pressure.
The conversation revealed that the broader issue was not just finding information, but understanding which information was current and trustworthy during emergencies.
The issue was not simply whether communication existed, but whether official updates could function as a trusted source during rapidly changing situations.
© 2026 by Rachel Moeller
© 2026 by Rachel Moeller
© 2026 by Rachel Moeller